Magic, Unveiled
by SilvermistRuhi
Summary: Working as an undercover auror in the CID was no small task. You had to be careful and discreet. Shreya had the careful part covered. The discreet part, not so much. Unfortunately, a memory charm is not the answer every time. CID HP crossover, currently being rewritten. I will only put out updates after I have a few chapters written :)
1. Chapter 1

Shreya settled down in her comfy couch one sunday night after a relatively tiresome week of work with a warm cup of tea with extra cream and a novel as she reflected on the cases they had come across this week. The bank robbery, the kidnapping and a series of thefts that resulted in a murder. These cases weren't exhausting because they baffled them. They were pretty regular cases but they required a lot of running around and generally resulted in cramps which were a literal pain in the neck.

But there was a particular case that had been reported this afternoon which had caught her attention. It was a rather odd case. A woman in her early forties had been murdered inside a room closed from the inside. Her body had been discovered by her sister, who had entered her house with the help of a spare key. Rohini, the victim Namrita's sister, had found it suspicious when Namrita had not come out of the room for a while and did not respond to her banging or shouting. Fearing for her sister's safety, she immediately called the neighbours for help who broke down the door to discover her seemingly unhurt-but-dead body.

When they (the CID) reached there, their first impression was that she was probably poisoned with a slow poison, but two hours later, when her body showed no particular signs to signal a death caused by poison, Shreya started weighing her options. What were the odds that this murder was not a regular one? What Shreya meant by this was that what were the odds that a wizard or a witch had committed this crime? Still, she told herself, she couldn't jump to conclusions until their forensic experts, and Dr. Tarika gave up and declared that they were at complete loss as to how the victim died.

What caused her to have the silly idea that wizards and witches exist, you ask? The fact that she was, in fact, a witch herself. Her team did not know this, of course, for the sake of keeping the wizarding society hidden. Her father and mother were both a part of the wizarding society. Her father, Shubhankar, a halfblood wizard, was a curse breaker at Gringotts and her mother, Sharmila, was a healer at 's. Shreya was the only one in all of her family and extended family and her magical friend circle and her family's friend circle who lived in India or, for that matter, the muggle society itself.

There were mainly two reasons for this, the first one being that India didn't have a wizarding society of it's own, because there weren't many wizards or witches there. The second was that since it had been under British influence for so long, the few Indians which were, indeed, magical, were registered in the British Ministry of Magic, and attended Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. So naturally, the wizardkind prefered Britain to India. Shreya herself would have been residing in London, had it not been for her job as an Auror.

She had always wanted to be an Auror, and, apparently, when she had applied for the job, the Auror Department and the DMLE+ were looking for someone of Indian origin to work in a particular city of India with the muggle police. The job was to keep a lookout for illegal wizarding activities while undercover, as a muggle policewoman and if the case called for it, an auror. Like she thought this one did.

Shreya had almost considered herself to be a muggle CID officer, for since the ministry had started positioning aurors around India, the baddies had all cleared out (except for those other two, Well, that's another story). Her boss, ACP Pradyuman, knew her true identity, as did every ACP in the city, so that they could refer to her when needed. The Muggle Indian government and the British Ministry of Magic both paid her a handsome salary, so it was safe to say that she was rather well off. Shreya didn't regret her decision to take on this career because the CID was almost like her family and her own family wrote to her thrice a week, as they did when she was at Hogwarts.

Shreya smiled. She loved going to Hogwarts. Staying with friends and learning to use her abilities properly. She was one of those who were there when the Golden Trio were in school. Her maternal first cousins, Parvati and Padma Patil, were in the same year as Harry, Hermione and Ron, whereas she herself was sorted in Ravenclaw four years later. She had been in Dumbledore's Army and wanted to fight in the battle of Hogwarts- and she would have too, if her cousins had not sent her off.

She admired Hermione Granger the most, the current Minister for Magic, for all of wit and courage she had. She was inspired by how the Golden Trio fought against the Dark Lord and, now that she came to think of it, it was possibly what had motivated her to become an auror and/or a CID officer, whichever way you put it.

And that would bring her back to pondering about Namrita's murder. Why would a wizard want to kill a muggle businesswoman? Shreya sighed. There was a possibility that she was a witch. She'd have to talk about this to her boss. But, of course, that would be if the forensic doctors didn't find some sort of poison in her body. But she'd find that out tomorrow morning so it was no use thinking about it right now. Especially when she was getting sleepy. She drained the remaining tea in her cup and sent them both to their proper places with a flick of her wand before retiring to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**

* * *

That ' _This morning's come way too early'_ was Shreya's only thought when she checked the time in the wall clock hanging on the opposite wall, and fell right back into her bed, sighing.

She sleepily charmed open her kitchen window in anticipation of the owl which delivered the wizarding newspaper _The Daily Prophet_ to her threshold before she went for a shower. " _Don't need anymore broken windows do I?"_ she thought to herself as she grimaced, remembering the events of the week past. The owl had pecked the pane so much that it had collapsed. It had been a right pain to make excuses up for her rather inquisitive neighbours, not to mention embarrassing.

When she came downstairs, a damn sight more awake and dressed for the day, she was met with not one but two owls. She gave a handful of nuts for them to peck on while she summoned her purse and fumbled in it for a knut*, which she then gave to the tawny owl which delivered her copy of _Prophet,_ and proceeded to fumble with the letter tied to the leg of the other owl, a snowy owl which she recognized as her mother's.

She opened her letter first, although she thought she knew what it said. Shreya skimmed through the letter to confirm her suspicions. She was right.

" _...Patrick O'Hara next door is getting married next month. Mrs.O'Hara came to invite us last night. I wonder when I will get around to giving invitations. Shreya, dear, I'm not pressurizing you but think about it. You are in your mid-thirties. How much longer will you wait? This is the right time, love. You choose the boy but I really wish to see you married, and possibly even expecting before Christmas this year. I know it's a bit too much to ask but how much longer will you stay alone and..._

Shreya was going to skip the rest of the letter but a particular line caught her eye. It read

" _...also, I'm taking a little break to come see how you're doing over the weekend._

 _Love,_

 _Mom"_

She sighed again. Witch or no witch, there's no getting away from mothers who are frantic about marrying you off. She frowned and began preparing her breakfast, for which she was (mercifully) in no hurry.

So distracted she was from her mother's letter, that it was only when she was about to leave when she noticed the still untouched newspaper lying on her kitchen island which she had _scourgifyied*_ clean. She still had some time to go so she started skimming over articles and headlines, until a second page headline drew her attention.

 _ **India based Muggle scientist possibly a successful alchemist?**_

 _An inside source in Indian Patent Office, Delhi, Claims that a Muggle scientist, Shashikant Rao, who has twice attempted to prove alchemy a success in the muggle world may be very close to being a successful alchemist. Alchemy, which is concerned with the making of the legendary Philosopher's stone, is difficult to master for many, even in the wizarding world. The last successful alchemist in the wizarding world, the renowned Nicholas Flamel, was successful in making the Philosopher's Stone, which can change base metals into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which can make the drinker immortal. If the said scientist is indeed...(continued on pg 5)_

Shreya raised an eyebrow. Why would that concern the wizarding world at all? She was not able to ponder on that question because (thankfully) her eyes fell on the kitchen clock and she proceeded to leave her house grabbing her bag, car keys (she couldn't possibly deal with "how do you manage without a vehicle" ) and phone, casting a hasty _Colloportus*_ on the door.

Twenty five minutes of Mumbai traffic later Shreya found herself wearily climbing the stairs to her workplace, ears still ringing with the utterly irritating sound of horns and thoroughly convinced she would rather answer the questions about her means of transport than driving through the traffic, only to find herself alone with her favourite senior in the empty workspace.

She felt his eyes follow her as she placed her bag on the desk in her cubicle, and smiled when he greeted her with a warm "Good Morning" to which she replied in kind and hence, like every other morning, began their little teasing game of " _I-see-you"_ as Shreya put it. She found a smile creeping up her face when she saw him staring at her straight out the corner of her eyes and was going to look up from the file she was pretending to read before they were quite rudely interrupted by their ever oblivious colleague Pankaj, who miraculously missed the murderous look Shreya was giving him as he went "Good morning Daya sir, Shreya."

Shreya huffed and went back to reading the file from where she left it, only to realize that she hadn't registered half of what it said. Starting again, she came to know that it contained the details of the woman whose case she had been pondering about. _Well,_ she thought to herself, _I suppose I'd have to ask ACP sir to assign the case to me if it really is committed by a wizard. But then, maybe he too had the same chain of thoughts?_ She shrugged, and was subconsciously chewing her bottom lip while reading the file, scanning it for some sort of evidence that connected the deceased woman to the wizarding world, when she was made aware of her boss's presence by the number of "good morning's".

Pradyuman dismissed the greetings with half a smile and then turned to Daya and ordered him to go check out the forensic reports of the latest case- the Namrita murder case. "Take Sachin with you." he added and turned to leave.

"Sir!" she had uttered the sentence before she herself had registered it "can I go with them?"

She must have sounded pretty desperate, if the smirk in the other senior inspector's face was anything to go by. She blushed slightly and then looked back to their boss who was nodding, apparently understanding the reason for the appeal.

"Yes, I think you better would. And mind, come meet me in my cabin after you return." he told her, still nodding and then turned to Sachin "Sachin, you stay back." The smirk on Abhijeet's face, if it were possible, got even more smug.

The short trip to the Forensic lab was uneventful, that is, until they reached their destination and Shreya held the door open for Daya to enter and he ran into the other _closed_ door in his haste to thank her. Daya then went ahead, after regaining his composure and a giggling Shreya followed. The two forensic doctors looked at them with an expression almost impossible to decipher, although Shreya thought she found a trace of bewilderment in it. This was all she needed to confirm her suspicions. Magic was certainly involved in this murder.

"Well" Daya asked "what did you find out?"

"Nothing. Absolutely Nothing!" Salunkhe looked as if he was going to kill himself, if only for the sake if asking the soul how she died.

"What do you mean ' _nothing'_?!" Daya demanded.

Salunkhe looked irritated enough as it was and the question seemed to irritate him more because of which, Tarika hastily took over.

"you see, even after high level complex tests, we couldn't find _any_ trace of _any_ sort of poison in her. And _if_ she were poisoned, then how?" she paused for a moment and retrieved a report from an envelope and thrust it in Shreya's hands. "We didn't find any mark on her body and those reports show that her food was not poisoned."

"Maybe she died of a heart attack?" Daya suggested

Tarika shook her head "there are no indications of a heart attack. All her arteries are totally fine. No blockage at all. There's no chance of a heart attack."

"But then how did she die?"

Shreya was quiet. She was the only one who knew.

Salunkhe had, by then, calmed down a little "we don't know, do we?" he said "it seems that her heart and brain somehow just stopped working."

 **A/N:** how was it? Went off track at quite a lot of places didn't it? I had to do the paragraph spaces manually in doc manager. I guess this happens because of the copy n paste but whatever. I'm really happy 'cause exams aren't looming anymore.

You know what'd make me happier? Reviews!

Want to make me happier?

Then will you please...:)


	3. Chapter 3

A bewildered Daya argued with the even more bewildered doctors, suggesting possible causes for Namrita's death until Shreya convinced them all that arguing would get them nowhere and practically dragged her senior out of the lab and back to the bureau.

The journey back was, again, silent except for Daya voicing the question that seemed to worry him the most-

" _what would ACP sir say?"_

The answer to this question would have been known to him had he not been _obliviated_ the past two times by a team of _obliviators_ with the rest of the CID team, except one ACP Pradyuman and, of course, Shreya herself.

When they entered the bureau, a harried expression on Daya's face, they were greeted by the sight of a crying Rohini telling Purvi and Rajat about what a great woman her sister was. Dodging the hopeful look her best friend Purvi was giving her to assume her current position, Shreya barged right inside her boss's cabin without bothering to even knock.

"I was right" she said, flopping down in a chair and ignoring the annoyed look on the latter's face.

"No trace of poison in her body nor any sign that showed how she could have been poisoned, if at all"she handed him the report and waited as he examined them.

"what do you think we should do now?" he asked her, still reading the report in his hands.

"what we do every time." she said pursing her lips "look for possible…"

"...enemies who would like to see her gone for good." a not-so-anonymous voice completed her sentence and sat down on the chair beside Shreya's. It seemed Daya had decided to join them.

"you people need to knock before you come in" Pradyuman said indignantly.

Shreya rolled her eyes. "that, sir, is beside the point. The point is we need something to work over. Something that would take us even a step closer to finding the culprit."

Daya nodded in agreement "Namrita was a businesswoman. She could have had a lot of enemies."

"well then, Rohini's sitting right outside. Go ask her about this and get the details of the rest of her family." Pradyuman dismissed his senior officer who stood up and left.

He turned back to Shreya "what are you going to do?" he asked her.

"go check her house again for possible clues." she told him

"And then?"

"Wait till I get the details of her family, friends, employees that were trusted the most and so on and go check them with the Ministry."

The latter nodded "you'd better get going then"

She got up and went towards her desk to grab her bag which held the essentials for investigating and was about to make a beeline for the exit when Daya's voice interrupted her.

"Where are you going Shreya?" he demanded.

Shreya pouted before slowly turning to face her senior. She sincerely hoped he didn't decide to send someone to tag along.

"well?" he crossed his arms on getting no reply.

She sighed "well, ACP sir thinks we should check the house again."

"and you decided to go alone?"

"well… you lot appeared to be busy and others aren't around so…"

Daya quirked an eyebrow "me and Rajat can take over from here. Purvi and Pankaj will go with you."

"but…" she wanted to argue but then shut up for good. When did he listen to her anyway?

(*&*)

Shreya had easier ways to find out whether the victim was a witch. Like owling the ministry. They'd have sent the reports by the afternoon at the latest. But she preferred searching the house herself, to see whether she could find anything like a wand or a cauldron or some books or something on magic or an owl? Even a quill and parchment could be a possible clue. And then, she could also cast spells to find traces of magic, if any. But she had to eliminate the spell casting part, for she now had her colleagues to accompany her.

Pankaj assigned himself to the hall and dining area, Purvi declared that she was going to check the den and the kitchen so Shreya was left with the bedrooms and the study. Quite convenient for her, to be honest.

After about half an hour's search, Pankaj was out in the backyard, pretending to look for clues, of which he found none, and Purvi had joined Shreya in combing through the study's library, which was rather vast for its size. ' _It could've been an undetectable extension charm…_ thought Shreya _but then, maybe it looks small because this flower pot thing is huge.'_

She looked at the object. It looked ancient and fragile. Probably Egyptian what with the hieroglyphs and all. The glow effect was pretty good too.

' _Wait,'_ she thought as she stared at it intently. ' _Glowing hieroglyphs?'_ She narrowed her eyes. ' _They must be Runes_.'

She couldn't tell for sure because she never took Ancient Runes back in Hogwarts.

' _Maybe I should go check the other places myself.'_

Excusing herself under the pretence of answering a call, (fakecall is such a useful app)

Shreya went downstairs towards the kitchen but found nothing. She then went into the den, where the very first thing to catch one's eyes would have to be the elegant fireplace. The first clue.

The second she found resting on top of it. It was a photo of a young Namrita with a woman who was probably her mother. There was nothing relatively remarkable about this photo for this one did not move. It looked like it was taken by a normal camera too, except that Shreya recognized the building in the photo's background to be that of the wizarding bank, Gringotts.

This was solid evidence that she was a witch. But how Purvi didn't find the presence of a fireplace in a house nestled in the heart of Mumbai she could not imagine. That is, until the person in question found her staring at the said object lost in a sea of thoughts and brought her back to reality.

"what are you staring at Shreya?" she asked from the doorway.

Shreya looked at her. "Don't you think the presence of a fireplace in a Mumbai house is strange?" she asked her. It wasn't, really, but fireplaces were a common method of transportation in the wizarding world.

Purvi blinked. "what fireplace?"

Shreya raised an eyebrow and dragged her colleague before their topic of discussion by hand " _this_ fireplace.'

Either Purvi was a very good actor, or she really hadn't noticed the large as life fireplace. Shreya didn't really know what to make of it, and because she was slightly irritated, took to the former of the variables.

When they came outside, Purvi wearing a slight frown, they found Pankaj staring at the wall which bore the window to Namrita's bedroom, apparently wondering if anyone could murder her through the grilled windows. On their appearance, however, he eliminated the idea and announced that he did not find anything suspicious at all, and Purvi agreed that apart from the suddenly appearing fireplace there was nothing out of place while Shreya nodded absentmindedly.

`\\_(' - ')_/`

Thoroughly Disappointed, Purvi and Pankaj grumbled all the way to the bureau, Pankaj almost saying that he would very much like to kill Namrita for dying in a manner so peculiar that they could not make heads or tails of it, until he realized what it was that he was muttering under his breath.

Shreya kept quiet, pondering over _muggle repelling charms_ or something of the like which _might_ just have kept Purvi from seeing the fireplace, for it was ridiculous to rule out such a likely possibility and a major reason to believe that the victim of the ongoing case was a witch.

The three climbed up the stairs in silence, which was dramatically broken by Shreya, who stopped dead in her tracks, staring with eyes wide open and hoping against hope that what she was seeing was just a dream as she faintly uttered something along the lines of the word "mom…?"

 **A/N:** Reviews are welcome :)


	4. Chapter 4

Shreya stood gaping at the sight of the forty-something witch with a kind face framed by wisps of white hair, beaming at her daughter. Beside her stood her boss, looking amused. They had apparently been talking.

Shaking herself out of her initial shock, Shreya approached her mother cautiously.

"mom." she repeated, silently scanning her workplace for any signs of Daya.

"Hello, Shreya." her mother replied, looking her daughter up and down "you've gotten thinner than ever. Don't you eat properly?"

"Im fine, mom. What are you doing here? I thought you were coming on Friday."

"oh, I was, but hea- _doctor_ Malfoy, bless her soul, came back from her leave sooner than I expected her to. And since I was covered up, Anthea said I could take my break now, so here I am." her mother smiled at her affectionately.

"but you should've gone home, mom. You know the address, right? I even gave you the keys. You must be tired." Shreya said to her mother with a raised eyebrow.

Truth be told, Shreya was more than a little suspicious of her mother's motives for insisting on coming to Mumbai, and now that she was in the CID Bureau, talking pleasantly to her boss, she was **not** going to believe that her mother had lost her home address, and that the cabbie and her '... _were just trying to find your house when we came across the bureau and since a poor old lady gets tired, I decided to wait for you.'_

Shreya was lucky Daya had gone off somewhere, otherwise she had no idea what would've happened. Even though she had never seen him, Shreya had no doubt that her mother would recognize him on sight. She never should've told her about him. Having no intention of lingering in the bureau any longer, lest she run into Daya, Shreya took advantage of her mother's supposed tiredness and took a quick leave.

As they drove through the Mumbai streets slowly _that's it! I'm apparating the next time_ Shreya decided it was time to interrogate her mother (who was determinedly staring out of the window) about the actual motives for visiting her workplace, but her mother beat her to it.

"I couldn't find that boy you told me about." she sounded disappointed.

Shreya sighed. "Mom…" she said, then paused and began again. "Look, mom, I'm not looking to get married, okay. Not yet."

"But this is the age to settle, honey. You're Thirty-three. Besides, you told me about that boy."

"I'm _only_ Thirty-three. And I only mentioned Daya a few times. I never said I wanted to marry him and raise his kids." the younger witch's tone was now grumbly. "I know him as a colleague, sometimes as a friend. I mean, sure, you'd say that I wouldn't have ever told you about him if I weren't a little interested, but even if that is true, it doesn't mean anything."

Shreya expected a retaliation. She expected her mother to try to convince her otherwise, instead, she found her mother looking at her intently. Not speaking, just looking, a determined expression on her face, though she tried to hide it. It was familiar, Shreya had seen it on her own face on a number of times– The day she boarded the Hogwarts Express, her first lecture at hogwarts, every single exam she had ever taken, Harry's DA classes, her third year, helping her mother with the injured after the battle... but seeing it on her mother's face now was a little unnerving. She didn't know what to make of it. The two women again fell silent and the rest of the journey passed that way.

When they got home, her mother started inspecting the house, commenting on the things scattered around, the clothes hanging outside, the little dust on the inside, the state of the lawn and how her house "...needs a bit more vibrancy.". Just like any other time. As if they hadn't had that conversation in the car. If she hadn't been confuse before, she certainly _was_ confused now. Her mother was saying something about plants. She could hear it, but couldn't comprehend it.

She must've seen the flabbergasted look on her daughter's face because she stopped mid sentence. "What's wrong, dear? You've got a funny look on your face."

The younger witch remained quiet for a moment, then said in a rush, "Are you mad at me because I refused to get married and now you're just going to ignore that conversation and pretend it never happened and go back to normal?"

The Ravenclaw's mother stared at her daughter for a second before her face broke into a smile. "No, Shreya, I'm not mad at you because you don't want to get married, although I would've liked it if you did, but I understand that you want a little more time. And anyhow, it's not like I can force you into it. But mind, I'd rather like to see my grandkids before I die."

Shreya gave her mother a slightly amused half smile. Her mother, being a witch, was unlikely to die anytime soon but the melodramatic _motherly_ way she used her age in, to blackmail, was hilarious.

"Now, as I was saying, I visited a plant convention a while ago and bought some flutterby seeds and wiggentrees to plant here. It'll add variety to your backyard." She produced a miniature trunk from her handbag and handed it to her " here, keep these in your garden shed while I unpack your supply of foodstuff. I only hope they haven't fallen over. I did stuff the spaces with newspapers but…" her mother wandered off towards the kitchen while Shreya went off towards her gardening shed, which was actually only a storage cupboard outside her house, only enlarged with an undetectable extension charm.

When she came back in, her mother was sitting at the table, reading the morning's _Prophet_. At her foot was a trunk, half filled with wads of newspapers and on the counter sat a number of jars filled with cookies of every sort, one of which she opened and sat down. Almost immediately, her mother put the paper down.

"Have you read the _Prophet_ today, dear?"

:)


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